The Medical Center Archives is happy to announce that the Justine Strand de Oliveira Papers are processed and available for research. Interested researchers should contact the Medical Center Archivist before use. The collection is organized into the following series: Correspondence, 1973-2010; Clippings, 1988-2014; Physician Assistant Profession, 1986-2006; Professional Papers, 1979-1981, 1996-2014. The papers contain an academic stole, certificates, correspondence, newsletters, programs, notes, clippings, a calendar, agendas, business cards, faxes, legal statutes, membership lists, photographs, reports, meeting minutes, a questionnaire/survey, a grant proposal, an application to Duke's Physician Assistant (PA) program, the Duke Student and Faculty Handbook, and a VHS tape.
Born in 1951, Justine Strand de Oliveira attended the University of Colorado from 1969 to 1971 before receiving her associate’s degree from the University of Florida in 1979. She received a Bachelor of Health Science from Duke University's Physician Assistant (PA) Program in 1981. In 1998, Strand de Oliveira received a Master of Public Health degree, and, in 2008, a doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Strand de Oliveira began her career as a PA in Greeley, Colorado, and, from 1982 to 1984, worked in Mambucaba, Brazil before moving to Austin, Texas, in 1984. While serving the Chair of Legislative Committee and President of the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants (TAPA), she helped lobby for the first prescribing and licensing laws for physician assistants in Texas. In 1994, Strand de Oliveira returned to Durham to serve as the director of general health services at the Durham County Health Department. Strand de Oliveira returned to Duke in 1997 served as the Duke Physician Assistant division chief from 1999 to 2012 and as program director from 2001 to 2003. In 2017, Strand de Oliveira stepped down as Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Community and Family Medicine and retired from Duke in order to accept a faculty position as a professor of physician associate studies at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Institute of Health Sciences Education.
While in North Carolina, Strand de Oliveira continued her work lobbying for physician assistant licensing laws. Strand de Oliveira is the past president of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA), North Carolina Medical Society Foundation (NCMSF), and the Texas Association of Physician Assistants (TAPA). She is an emerita member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine; a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (DFAAPA); and a member of Pi Alpha, the national physician assistant honor society. In 2004, she became the first PA elected to the North Carolina Medical Society Foundation Board of Trustees and served a one-year term as secretary and treasurer. In 2005, Strand de Oliveira was recognized as the Outstanding PA of the Year by the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
To learn more about these materials, visit the finding aid or contact the archives staff.
This blog was contributed by Archives Intern Kahlee Leingang.